1. Young Wings grow up in a hurry. It was a heck of a time for a teaching moment, but Mike Babcock figured it wouldn't be a bad thing if his less-experienced players had to learn postseason composure on the fly Thursday night.

Fortunately for Babcock, his players were quick stuidies. They earned a 5-4 overtime win in Game 2 after a third-period meltdown, and a split of the series' first two games.

Babcock decided not to call a timeout while the Ducks were scoring three times in 10 minutes and erasing a 4-1 Wings lead.

"I think it's a great learning experience," Babcock told reporters. "You've got the win, and you stop playing. ... You're not settling them down, you're putting gas on the fire. What are you going to do about it? You're hoping your big guys are going to go out there and make a play."

Gustav Nyquist, 23, made the deciding play, scoring with the man advantage 1:21 into OT.

Gryba's coach, Ottawa's Paul MacLean, went so far as to blame Eller's teammate, Montreal's Raphael Diaz, for hanging Eller out to dry.

"(If I'm Eller), I'm really mad at player 61, whoever he is, because he passed me the puck in the middle of the rink when I wasn't looking," said MacLean. "That's always been a dangerous place as far as I know. Ever since I've been playing this game, that's a dangerous place to be — bad things happen.

"I think it's a hockey play that ended up going badly for Lars Eller."

Diaz did take some responsibility.

"Of course you don't want to make passes like that. I just saw that (Eller) was open," said Diaz. "If I see the guy coming, I never would do that pass. It's not fun when you see your teammate like that."

3. Ask away; you might not like the answers. It's springtime, and the Rangers are in the playoffs. That can mean just one thing: Epic pre- and postgame press conferences by New York coach John Tortorella.

Torts set some ground rules at Thursday's morning skate ahead of Game 1 in Washington.